OPA

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of legislation (H.R. 8917) to provide for distribution of $1,750,000 in judgment funds to the 0maha Tribe of Nebraska.

The award, by the Indian Claims Commission, represents additional compensation for lands in what is now western Iowa and the northwestern Missouri to which the Omahas and other Tribes owned recognized title when the United States made treaties with them in 1825 and 1830.

As recommended, the bill would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to make a per capita distribution up to a maximum of $270 to each enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. This would include those whose names appear on the tribal roll prepared September 14, 1951 when a previous award was made, plus the names of all children of at least one-quarter degree Omaha Indian blood born since that date.

Present tribal membership is about 2,600, with slightly more than half the members under twenty-one years of age. Per capita payments to tribal members who are minors are to be deposited in a bank account for educational purposes.

The tribal council has proposed several programs for using the balance of the award not distributed per capita. These include a tribal land purchase and land use plan, and an educational program.

The sum of $150,000 will be withheld from disbursement of the award pending settlement of a conflicting claim of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

The award of a $384,600 contract for construction of four metal buildings at the 200-man Eight Canyon Job Corps Conservation Center on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in New Mexico was announced today by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Eight Canyon Center is located about eight miles southwest of Mescalero, New Mexico. It is one of ten such centers to be operated on Indian Reservation areas as part of a combined work and education program for unemployed youths under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The construction contract includes: two dormitories; a building to house kitchen and dining facilities plus education and recreation areas; and a combined office and dispensary building.

Successful bidder was Steelcon Building Co., Inc. of El Paso, Texas. Three bids were received, ranging to a high of $447,121.

Other reservation Job Corps Conservation Centers are: San Carlos, Arizona (San Carlos); Mexican Springs, New Mexico (Navajo); Neah Bay, Washington (Makah); Chippewa Ranch, Minnesota (White Earth); Kicking Horse, Montana (Flathead); Poston, Arizona (Colorado River); Fort Simcoe, Washington (Yakima); Swiftbird, Eagle Butte, South Dakota (Cheyenne River); and Winslow, Arizona (near Navajo).

The Department of the Interior has submitted to Congress a proposed bill to provide for disposition of funds appropriated to pay a judgment in favor of the Snake or Paiute Indians of Oregon.

The judgment is for $3,650,000 for the Snake Tract, or Oregon Area, in Docket No. 87 of the Indian Claims Commission. The Commission has divided the total area involved into three tracts. The Snake Tract, consisting of lands in Oregon, Nevada, and California, is the only one for which a final award has been granted.

Under the proposed bill, the Secretary of the Interior would prepare a roll of all Northern Paiute Indians or their descendants who are living on the date of the Act. The bill excludes three groups of Indians: Those who elect to participate in the Malheur Paiute judgment award of December 4, 1959; those who will participate in a judgment awarded to certain Indians of California July 20, 1964; and those whose Indian ancestry is solely derived from four groups specifically excluded from this judgment. These are the Walpapi Paiute, Yahooskin "Snake," Bannock, and Western Mono.

In recommending the bill, however, the Department said there is little basis for assuming that any contemporary Paiute groups in the Snake Tract are exclusively entitled to the award. The same situation exists regarding the other two areas designated in Docket No. 87.

The absence of rolls identifying Paiutes with the respective tracts, the unfamiliarity of present-day Indians with early band designations, and the widespread movement and merging of bands and families complicate efforts to identify modern Paiutes with aboriginal groups, the Department said.

In addition, there are numerous individuals who are not affiliated with any federally recognized groups as they are known today, the Department added.

The proposed measure represents a consolidation of all Northern Paiutes into a single judgment roll and provides that all funds derived from any awards under Docket No. 87 shall be consolidated to the credit of the Northern Paiute Nation. Disposition of these funds would be made in behalf of the Northern Paiute Nation, without regard to geographic areas for which the awards are specifically made.

The Department of the Interior has recommended enactment of Federal legislation authorizing long-term leasing of lands on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservation and the Papago Reservation, both in Arizona.

Two bills now before Congress would permit land leases not to exceed 99 years for public, religious, educational, recreational, residential or business purposes. They would provide for a maximum term of 40 years for farming leases when substantial investment is necessary for land improvement to grow specialized crops, and would continue the present maximum of 10 years for grazing leases and farming leases where substantial investment is not required for development. They would not apply to mineral development leases.

An Act of August 9, 1955 authorized leases for periods of 25 years, with an option for one additional term of 25 years. The Department said this limitation has hampered the Indians of both reservations in negotiating leases for reservation development and bas prevented them from gaining maximum return from their lands. Potential leases have been unable to obtain necessary financing to develop property under leases with only 50-year terms, the Department added.

Under the proposed measures, the State of Arizona would be authorized to amend its State laws or Constitution to assume civil and criminal jurisdiction over all or any part of the reservations, permanently or for an authorized period. Such action would be subject to the consent of the Tribal Council and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

The Department recommended retention of a provision in each of the bills that would allow municipalities with boundaries adjacent to the reservations to annex all or part of them, with consent and approval of the Tribal Council and the Secretary of the Interior. The Department recommended against a provision in the bills that would permit annexation of reservation lands as much as 10 miles from city boundaries.

Other significant provisions would allow Indian owners to dedicate land for streets, alleys, and other public purposes, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior; permit the Indians to provide for extension of State and county zoning ordinances, housing codes, and health and sanitation laws to leased areas; and affirm the power of the Tribal Council to enact zoning, building and sanitary regulations for reservation lands not under State jurisdiction.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced the appointment of Richmond F. Allan of Billings, Mont., as an Associate Solicitor to head the Division of Indian Affairs in the Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D. C.

Mr. Allan, a native of Billings, has been an attorney with the Lands Division in the Department of Justice since February and now makes his home at Alexandria, Va., near Washington.

A cum laude graduate of Montana State University, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1955 and his bachelor of laws degree in 1957, Allan spent the year after his graduation from law school as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, where he studied international law, jurisprudence, and conflicts of law.

Upon returning to the United States he became law clerk to Judge Walter L. Pope, Chief Judge of the U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, San Francisco. From 1959 to 1961 he was partner in the Billings law firm of Kurth, Conner, Jones and Allan.

Mr. Allan was named Assistant United states Attorney for the District of Montana in 1961 and headed the Billings sub office of the United States Attorney, representing the Government in many cases involving Indian litigation. He resigned that position to join the Department of Justice in Washington.

While attending law school, Mr. Allan was on the Montana Law Review Staff and was associate editor in 1956-57. He won two awards for outstanding scholarship and, in 1957, was named winner of the Northwest Regional National Moot Court Championship.

Mr. Allan is a member of the Montana and District of Columbia bars and has been admitted to practice before the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.

He is married to the former Dorothy Frost of Billings. They have two sons.

The new associate solicitor's parents are Mr. and Mrs. Roy F. Allan, also of Billings, where the elder Mr. Allan is an assistant field solicitor for the Department of the Interior.

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs today announced renewal of contracts totaling more than $150,000 with six manufacturers to provide on-the-job training for 236 American Indians. The trainees will learn industrial skills ranging from diamond polishing to electronics assembly.

On-the-job training is part of the Bureau's Employment Assistance Program which aids reservation Indians in finding jobs. Training provided under contracts with cooperating employers has proved particularly effective in preparing eligible Indians who wish to work on or near their reservations, the Bureau said.

The six companies renewing training contracts for the period ending June 30, 1966 are:

Harry Winston, Inc., Chandler, Ariz. - A $53,300 contract to train 59 Pimas from the Gila River and Salt River Reservations as diamond sawyers, girdlers and polishers;

Mitchell Furniture Industries, Inc., Durant, Okla. - To train 16 Indians - mainly Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Cherokees - in furniture manufacturing occupations under a $14,220 contract;

Northern Cedarcraft Products, Inc., Redby, Minn. - A $4,700 contract to train 38 Chippewas from Red Lake Reservation in processing cedar logs for a wide variety of fencing products;

Sequoyah Mills, Inc., in Caddo County, Okla. - A $43,925 contract to train 50 Indians in carpeting plant occupations. Groups represented among the trainees include: Pawnees, Arapahoes, Choctaws, Kiowas, Comanches, Delawares, and Cherokees;

Systems Engineering Electronics, Inc., Wewoka, Okla. - A $25,225 contract to train 41 Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws in plastic sub-assembly work, electronic printed circuit board fabrication and assembly, and electrical harness fabrication;

Venride, Inc., New Town, N. D. - A $16,555 contract to train 32 Arikaras, Gros Ventres, and Mandans in various occupations connected with the manufacture and assembly of children's rides and fabric glass products.

Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall today announced he is appointing H. Edward Hyden, an Interior Department lawyer specializing in American Indian affairs for 26 years, to be Chief Justice of American Samoa.

Mr. Hyden, Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs since 1957, will succeed Judge Arthur A. Morrow, Who became Chief Justice of the territory in the South Pacific in 1937, the year before Mr. Hyden received his law degree.

Judge Morrow is retiring October 16. In August, 1963, he reached his 70th birthday, normally the mandatory retirement age for Federal civilian employees, but agreed to the Department's request that he remain with the territorial court as a reemployed annuitant.

Governor H. Rex Lee of American Samoa has asked Judge Morrow to remain in the territory and serve with the territorial government on a part-time basis. Governor Lee added that he hoped Judge Morrow will also conduct a part-time private law practice, at least until some of the Samoan students now studying law receive their degrees and return home to practice.

Judge Morrow was dean of the College of Law at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, when he was appointed Chief Justice of American Samoa, then under Navy jurisdiction. In 1942 he returned to the University as dean of its Law College when the Navy decided that wartime conditions made it necessary for a Naval officer to preside over the court. From May, 1943, to October, 1945, he also served as, compliance commissioner in the Des Moines area for the War Production Board. In 1946 he returned to preside over the court in American Samoa.

Mr. Hyden, who still calls Oklahoma his home, received his bachelor of laws degree in 1938 and his master of laws degree the following year from Columbus University, now Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

He entered Federal service in April, 1935, and in 1939 was assigned to the Interior Department's Solicitor's Office as an Indian affairs attorney. He was a major contributor to the Department's 1958 publication, Federal Indian Law, a leading textbook on the subject. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, and is a member of the Oklahoma, Federal and American Bar Associations.

Secretary Udall said Mr. Hyden's years of experience in dealing closely with rapidly-changing social and economic conditions among people whose culture is different from the average American's will be important in his new post in American Samoa.

American Samoa is one of the areas administered by the Interior Department's Office of Territories. It comprises the seven eastern islands of the Samoan group, approximately 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii and 1600 miles northeast of the northern tip of New Zealand. The population is approximately 22,000.

The people of American Samoa are American nationals and represent one of the few remaining societies of Polynesians retaining the major part of their traditional culture.

American Samoa was under the jurisdiction of the Navy, as a naval base, from 1900 until 1951, when it was transferred to the Department of the Interior.

Mr. and Mrs. Hyden, who now reside in Alexandria, Virginia, will leave for American Samoa in mid-October.

Earlier this week, Secretary Udall announced that Richmond F. Allan of Billings, Montana, will be the new Associate Solicitor for Indian Affairs, replacing Mr. Hyden.

The award of a $540,998 contract for remodeling and construction at the 200-man Job Corps Center at Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Reservation was announced today by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. The center is expected to be ready for activation within six months.

Poston, once a wartime relocation center, will be one of ten Job Corps conservation centers to be operated in Indian areas under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Three others already in operation are at Mexican Springs, New Mexico (Navajo Reservation); Winslow, Arizona (near the Navajo area); and Neah Bay, Washington (Makah Reservation). Others will be at San Carlos, Arizona (San Carlos Reservation); Chippewa Ranch, Minnesota (White Earth); Kicking Horse, Montana (Flathead); Eight Canyon, New Mexico (Mescalero Apache); Fort Simcoe, Washington (Yakima); and Swiftbird, Eagle Butte, South Dakota (Cheyenne River).

The centers are being created to provide education and occupational training for out-of-school youth. Nearly 300 young men are already at work on conservation and improvement projects on public and Indian lands.

The construction project at Poston will consist of remodeling and repair of 13 adobe buildings for barracks; construction of a 12,800-square-foot metal building for kitchen, dining room, offices and classrooms; a 24,000-square-foot surfaced recreation area; and all necessary utilities.

Successful bidder was Mel Slaysman Construction Company, Phoenix, Arizona. Eight other bids were received ranging from $552,500 to $592,100.

SALT RIVER INDIANS LEASE SCOTTSDALE AREA TRACT

A group of Salt River Reservation Indians anticipates an annual income of $400 per acre from a 156-acre tract recently leased to the Arizona Stable Development Company. The lease runs for 25 years, with an additional 25-year option. The tract, composed of eight allotments and leased as a unit, lies immediately south of the Indian Bend Golf Course near Scottsdale, Arizona.

When the land is fully developed, the Indian owners will receive a guaranteed minimum rent of about $50,000 per year, plus three per cent of the gross proceeds from the planned development, and $360 per year for each house built on the property.

The Development Company plans a $6 million investment and is committed to build a riding arena, training track and deluxe stables this year. Future commitments call for a water and sewer system, 30-unit hotel, six houses, lake and pool by the first of next year, and construction of 72 apartment units by mid-1966.

PROJECT TO TRAIN NAVAJO GARMENT WORKERS

The B.V.D. Company, Inc. has announced its intention to cooperate with representatives of the Navajo Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in establishing a pilot garment sewing training project near Winslow, Arizona. The project, to cost an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, will commence October 1 and will determine the capabilities of Navajo women for high-speed sewing. If training proves successful, B.V.D. will establish a permanent manufacturing facility on the reservation.

The manufacturer will supply necessary machinery and supervisory personnel. Arrangements to house the project are not yet completed.

INDIAN CLAIMS

The Indian Claims Commission recently granted an award of $171,897 to the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma on behalf of the Peorias and the Piankeshaw, Wea, and Kaskaskia Nations. The award represents additional payment for 207,759 acres of land in Kansas disposed of under the Treaty of May 30, 1854.

The Commission also has approved a compromise settlement and granted an award of $520,000 to the Quechan Tribe of Indians. The award represents fair payment for 667,544 acres of land in California, taken in 1853, and 881,644 acres of land in Arizona, taken in 1884.

Attorneys for the Iowa Tribe have appealed the Commission's decisions in a case in which the Iowa Reservation in Nebraska and Kansas was granted an award of $633,193.77 on May 7, 1965. The appeal is based on the issues of the value of the lands ceded under the Treaty of August 4, 1824, and the reduced area to which the Commission found that the Indians held title.

ALASKA NATIVE VILLAGES RECOVER

Old Harbor and Point Lions, Kodiak Island native communities that were hard hit by the Alaska earthquake, are steadily returning to normal.

Working with specialist from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, energetic villagers have completed reconstruction of power transmission systems in both communities restored sewer and water systems at Old Harbor. Two 100-KW power generators have been installed in a new central power plant to serve both villages.

INDIAN-ESKIMO ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION

The Museum of Contemporary Crafts of the American Craftsmen's Council at 29 W. 53rd Street, New York City, will continue through September 12 to exhibit a remarkable collection of contemporary Indian and Eskimo arts arid crafts. The show consists of work by Indian students at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and of Alaskan Eskimo craftsmen-trainees.

Paintings, sculpture, metal crafts, ceramics, textiles and other art objects from the Santa Fe Institute reflect some of the new art forms developed by Indian artists who link the best in traditional Indian culture to contemporary life. The Institute is operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and is now in its third year. It offers an accredited high school program and a post-high school vocational program in preparation for colleges, technical schools and arts vocations. Its student body of 350 is drawn from 88 tribes in 25 States.

The Alaskans represented in the current exhibit are members of a group of 40 unemployed craftsmen and hunters ranging in age from 16 to 65 who were selected to participate in a Federal training project. Working in wood, stone, ivory, metals, and lapidary, they combine contemporary designs and techniques with subjects drawn from Eskimo life.

NORTHERN CEDARCRAFT REACHES FULL PRODUCTION

Officials at Red Lake Indian Mills recently reported that Northern Cedarcraft Products, Inc. is now in full production on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota. The plant, which produces cedar fence posts, employs 48 Chippewa Indians in two full-time shifts. Only recently completed, it has bolstered the economy of the entire Red Lake area.

Northern Cedarcraft is one of many companies established on Indian reservations across the country through the cooperative efforts of tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Philleo Nash today requested all Bureau employees--and urged all Indian adults--to take part in the National Driver's Test to be telecast over the CBS Television Network Monday, August 30.

The self-evaluation driver review test will be telecast at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time, and 9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain time.

Test forms are being distributed throughout the Indian reservations and all Bureau offices.

In pledging the Bureau's full support of the National Driver's Test as well as other nationwide safety and accident prevention programs, Nash said:

"Automobiles, buses and trucks are by far the most common means of travel in Indian areas. The accident rate is high, and we must reduce it.

"The Bureau’s trusteeship responsibilities for many Indian lands imply a direct responsibility for the safety and well-being of the people. We have, therefore, established an Office of Safety in the Bureau, and will develop a motor vehicle accident prevention program to parallel other efforts in the area of occupational safety practices."